Vic Toews

[Sponsorship Program, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has slammed the public accounts committee for its work in investigating the funnelling of tax dollars into Liberal friendly ad firms.

Now, his Quebec lieutenant, in fact, his appointed person, is pushing the RCMP to lay criminal charges to ease political pressure on the Liberals in Quebec.

Why is the Prime Minister more interested in interfering with the investigation in the scandal than getting to the bottom of this mess?

[Sponsorship Program, April 22nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's hand-picked Quebec lieutenant is trying to give political direction to the RCMP to lay criminal charges in the sponsorship scandal. By the Prime Minister's silence, the Prime Minister is allowing his political friend to direct and influence the RCMP criminal investigation.

The Prime Minister appointed Mr. Lapierre. Will he hold him accountable for his reprehensible action or is that what he expects of his political friends?

[Government Contracts, April 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister knows the evidence that we are talking about and this is all about accountability and responsibility. The Prime Minister has been attempting to explain away his conduct, conduct that goes back nine years. He cannot explain it away.

I ask the Prime Minister to give Canadians the whole story. Why will he not admit that not only did he know about the breach of the rules, but in fact he was involved in breaking those rules?

[Government Contracts, April 20th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the record is clear about this Prime Minister's involvement in sole sourcing contracts to his friends at Earnscliffe. In the memo to Warren Kinsella, Chuck Guité properly assigned blame where it belonged. Quoting from the guidelines, he said that if a department or agency fails to follow the contracting policy, the responsibility lies with the minister.

The Prime Minister clearly breached the rules. Why is he not accountable and responsible to Canadians for doing that?

[Government Contracts, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the government promised to get to the bottom of the sponsorship scandal. Now the government is blaming everyone from Chuck Guité to the Auditor General herself.

Public servants say that the Prime Minister's friends at Earnscliffe were favoured with contracts from the Department of Finance. The records are clear on that point.

Why should Canadians believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing about the favours that his friends at Earnscliffe received?

[Government Contracts, April 19th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, public servants say that in the mid-1990s the finance department orchestrated a sole sourced advertising contract to the Prime Minister's friends at Earnscliffe. The contracts were wired to favour his friends at Earnscliffe.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Will he now admit that he knew about questionable contracting practices for years while he was finance minister and did nothing about it?

[Privilege, April 1st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to add a few comments as well. I was in committee yesterday and the evidence was quite clear that there was a prima facie breach. Indeed, there was a complete confession by the member as to his breach of the privilege, that there was certainly a prima facie breach.

Indeed, as has just been stated, the member for Leeds—Grenville--hopefully he was not paid for his advice by the member who was in breach--gave up his client and said basically that “look, I am not even going to defend this, it is so apparent”. I think that basically brought the discussion to an end. There had been a prima facie breach there by the member. There was a confession not only by the member who did it, but indeed by his most able representative, the member for Leeds—Grenville.

So we came to the committee today. I had drafted up the report in the appropriate form. It appeared that the grey wall of the PMO had descended upon these individuals, basically thumbing their noses not just at the committee, but at you, Mr. Speaker, and the respect that you are entitled to as the Speaker of the House.

You are here, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that this democratic forum and its rules are protected. What we saw in committee today is the complete subversion of democracy. It is now on your shoulders, Mr. Speaker, to set this right. Canadians are counting on you to make sure that this wrong is righted.

[Supreme Court of Canada, March 31st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, that is just another smoke screen. One thing is clear. When it comes to the appointment of judges, it is who one knows in the PMO rather than what one knows.

The Prime Minister was able to plan his personal wealth by ripping off Canadian taxpayers. Does he have any explanation for--

[Supreme Court of Canada, March 31st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, while the Prime Minister was busy avoiding Canadian taxes in Barbados, he was also telling Canadians he had a better way of appointing Supreme Court of Canada judges. However, since becoming Prime Minister, he has failed to put forward any new ideas about appointing judges.

It is clear he was able to avoid paying personal income taxes because of his offshore havens. What about a better justice system for Canada?

[Volunteer Emergency Workers, March 31st, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, a provincial inquest into the deaths of three Manitoba residents has determined that many rural Manitoba communities lack an acceptable level of resources to protect residents from the threat of fire. This ruling further underlines the need for the House to consider amendments to the Income Tax Act, such as the proposal to allow volunteer emergency workers to deduct $3,000 from their taxable income, as the Conservative members of Parliament for Lethbridge and South Shore have long advocated.

This move would not only recognize the importance of volunteer men and women in emergency services and Canada's dependence on their services, but it would go a long way in helping communities attract and retain volunteers. In a small way, it would compensate those courageous individuals for their important service to their community.